diet coke! cummon ya wimp, hehe just kidding.
i dont fish that area so i really dont know, squid isnt normally a good bait by my standards. i dont like anything frozen either. fresh is good frozen bad. i think seaworms would be best because first their alive and first stripers and tuns of other fish love em,(flounder, cod, pollack, and other fish that like to eat)
p.s. clams can be even better for stripers especially if they arent frozen, are they still there around where you are. rhode island is it? there gone in boston, as long as nobody else can convince me otherwise.